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Planned Parenthood gets silent treatment from Ottawa

One of the world’s biggest health-care providers for vulnerable women appears to have fallen victim to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s zero tolerance policy on abortion.

In London, International Planned Parenthood Federation is waiting for a call from Canada that will preserve life-saving programs that help 31 million women and children.

But nearly a year after the U.K.-based organization tried to renew its $18 million grant – and on the eve of a G20 summit Harper has focused on maternal health — the line from Ottawa is silent.

And, said Human Rights Watch women’s advocate Marianne Mollmann, “the Canadian government’s stance to block support for safe abortions is demonstrably deadly. And announced as part of a maternal health initiative it is also, frankly, absurd.”

Planned Parenthood includes abortion in its wide range of services to needy women and girls in 174 countries. And the silence from Ottawa may mean it has been targeted by Harper’s contentious policy of not funding terminations of pregnancy overseas – although abortion is legal in Canada.

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“We submitted an application for a three-year funding renewal to CIDA . . . in June, 2009,” said Paul Bell of the International Planned Parenthood Federation in London. “It is unusual not to have heard anything about the proposal at this stage, 11 months after it was submitted.”

“Loss of funding would have all too predictable and devastating consequences on our ability to continue to provide desperately needed services,” he added. “Some programs will inevitably be closed or curtailed, others won’t start, and services and supplies will have to be cut back.”

Canada supplies a significant part of Planned Parenthood’s $120 million annual budget.

The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) told the Star it was considering the application, and could not discuss it while the decision was being made.

But another maternal health agency, Marie Stopes International, has already fallen under the abortion ban – and received only conditional funding from Ottawa. CIDA is currently funding reproductive health and HIV/AIDS programs in South Africa, and says it is “considering” renewing funds for health services to vulnerable people in Tanzania. But unlike previous years, the Marie Stopes grants are now conditional on the agency avoiding any connection with abortion.

“The decision is a real missed opportunity to make an impact on the 13 per cent of maternal deaths caused by unsafe abortions globally,” said the group’s CEO Dana Hovig in a statement. “You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health and (that) includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortions.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband have echoed her, raking Canada over the coals on its abortion stance. CIDA minister Bev Oda says that the government won’t fund abortion, but will put money into programs for safe pregnancy and childbirth, as well as family planning.

But Harper has also been slow to follow up on his wider goal of promoting maternal and child health.

“Time is running out for government to articulate their plan for the summit,” charges Liberal MP and physician Keith Martin, pointing out that Harper has not backed a plan to ask world leaders to endorse a more than $30 billion global fund estimated to save the lives of up to 12 million women, children and newborns.

Meanwhile, Canada is not contributing to the pre-summit Women Deliver conference in Washington, which will be attended by senior officials and politicians from around the world, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Nor has Harper responded to an invitation to attend.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office told the Star that there were currently “no plans (for Harper) to travel to Washington” at the time of the meeting, June 7-9.

“It’s surprising that the Prime Minister hasn’t decided to come to the conference because he’s made maternal health a signature issue, and this is the biggest gathering since Beijing,” said Jill Sheffield, who heads Women Deliver.

It’s all the more perplexing, she believes, because Ottawa did fund the group’s last conference in 2007. It will be attended by 3,000 people from G20 countries, including 30 senior government ministers, as well as international officials, media, and civil society leaders.

But Canada, this year’s G8 and G20 host may be conspicuously absent.

“It would give Harper a global platform and really showcase his commitment to the issues,” said Sheffield in a phone interview. “We look on it as a major opportunity with a lot of pluses and no minuses. This is something he would want to make his legacy.”

Oda has said publicly that she will attend the conference. But organizers say they have had no formal acceptance from her. Her office said that conference funding was under consideration.

But the uncertainty over funding of maternal health issues is part of a wider pattern under the Conservatives, says Ian Smillie, an international aid expert and member of the Ottawa-based McLeod Group, which advocates for a reinvigorated Canadian role on the world stage.

“Everything is stalled, and the whole system is gummed up,” he said. “There are specific problems on abortion and human rights, and anyone who has anything to say about the Middle East is in trouble.”

And he adds, “Canada is not a leader on maternal health. Other countries have led on this for decades. The only one that hasn’t been doing much is Canada. ”

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